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Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China held a meeting in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday and both sides expressed satisfaction over the positive development of ASEAN-China relations, a high-ranking Chinese official said.
Cui Tiankai, director-general of the Asian affairs department under the Foreign Ministry, said that the ASEAN-China Senior Official's Meeting focused on the preparation of the 9th ASEAN-China Summit scheduled to be held here on December 12.
With the joint efforts, Cui said, both sides believe the forthcoming summit will achieve fruitful results and further enhance ASEAN-China strategic partnership for peace and prosperity.
In a related development, the preparatory Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM) was also held here Wednesday. The SEOM finalized the documents to be signed by the ASEAN Economic Ministers as follows: The Mutual Recognition Arrangements on Engineering Services, Agreement on the ASEAN Harmonized Electrical and Electronic regulatory Regime, and Agreement on ASEAN Single Window.
The meeting also discussed a report to be presented to the economic ministers on the current status of the Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN Dialogue partners, namely South Korea, India and Japan and on the mechanism to enhance ASEAN+3 linkages.
ASEAN, established in 1967, groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2005)
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